8. Use a simple design

9. Replace “I” with “You”

When you use “you”, it’s a substitute for someone’s name. Just as you do when you’re talking to a friend in person.

The next time you’re sending out an email, do this: Reduce the number of times you use “I” and rephrase the sentence to use “you”. You’ll build a stronger connection with your readers that way.

10. Be familiar and personal

Use their first names in the salutation to boost engagement.

But don’t overdo it by using it in every other sentence because that’s plain weird and creepy and might hurt your readership.

I was subscribed to someone’s list who did this quite often. She’d punch in my name in every other paragraph. After a point, it got tiresome to read her emails.

11. Have a personalized welcome message

I like how Pat Flynn does this:

12. Use the power of P.S.

Make use of a P.S. (postscript) religiously to nudge them to take an action. Avoid overdoing it though with P.P.S and P.P.P.S.

13. Give them some (white) space

Don’t clutter your email! I like how Jon Morrow sends clean, text-based emails whenever he has a new post.

14. Give them everything or a teaser

Some bloggers like to send the whole post in email with some links at the bottom, while others like to send a teaser (like Jon does above).

There is no one-size solution. I urge you to do your own research and A/B tests of what gives you more engagement and boosts click-through rates.

(Pro-tip: Emails that include social sharing buttons have a 158% higher click-through rate.)

Then stick to that strategy that works.

15. Churn out insanely useful autoresponders

Let’s say you run a web design tips newsletter.

Someone who has just joined your list may be expecting a warm welcome message with a few orientation lessons.

Contrast that with a subscriber who has been on your list for a few months now. They will expect more advanced stuff. It’s also OK to promote your wares and make a sale of your products or coaching service to this person.

Autoresponders make it super-easy to match the right content with your subscriber. You can also keep a tab on where someone is in the customer lifecycle.

According to GetResponse, an average autoresponder has 8 messages and is 49 days long. Mine has 39 emails that go on for a few months.

Excellent. Benefits-driven headlines can make a serious impact, and boost your open and read rates quickly. We’re selling a dream before all else.

Some are interested in a feature or 2 but features don’t keep people up at night. Dreams do. And dreams are built on a bed of comfy, pleasing, rosy benefits.

I for one like thinking about what moves me and my audience before I write a post or send out a newsletter. The idea must be emotional, tangible, something that makes you excited, or inspires you. Most people are either outright jaded or have seen the same old subject lines that they’re entirely numb to these old school, boring tactics.

If however I explain how a cockcoach taught me – and teaches you – a blogging lesson, and I delve deeper, well, even if this isn’t a dream headline per se it’ll catch your attention in more ways than one. This is the curiosity factor.

Be creative, inspire and most of all, intend to add value each time you publish a new newsletter. Over-stuff each update with value to become valuable in the eyes of your subscribers and to boost those open and read rates.

Another point; when you simply send out rocking, sensational emails persistently people’ll open them immediately because you set the bar so high in the past and the promise is email gold is waiting behind a double click.

Awesome post Pooja. I’ll tweet in a bit.

Thanks.

Ryan

Uma Jaishankar

Hey Jeff ,
good, that gave a beautiful insight. And when it comes to E mailer campaigns , can you share a few sure ways my mailer is opened , read and responded?

I work for a digital ad agency and take care of business development with a special focus to E commerce site development and promotions.

Great stuff about how to get more open rates. I have been using some of the tips you shared and I have seen a difference. That one tip that really get the best responses is when I use their first name in the subject line. I get a lot more email opens than if I don’t.

One thing I lack is not using enough hypnotic words as you mentioned. I can definitely see how this can effect the open rate more positive. From what I see these words are action verbs which is more cut-to-the-chase and get to the point words to use. Most people respond well to more confident words like these as oppose to others!

Thanks for the share!

http://www.wellpaidwritersclub.com Pooja

Hey Sherman,

Thanks for the thoughtful comment. If using their first name gets you more opens, by all means keep doing it.

A lot of marketers though are asking just the email address, so that may be a tricky one for many people.

Thanks for taking time to comment!

Pooja

Ben Harnwell

Thanks Pooja and sorry I didn’t read the by line and see it was not Jeff writing this one! I really did enjoy the article and took away some good ideas.

Hi Jeff. This was a lot of insightful information. I cannot deny the fact that people want to hear from real people and hence using real names is extremely important as it gives a sense of personal touch to your emails. Also using a ‘you’ orientted content approache makes the subscribers feel special and valued. Besides this i would like to add that newsjacking is a great way to achieve higher email open rates as it has the ability to inject a fresh perspective to your content inorder to drive engagement. Our post on the subject may be of help to you: http://www.emailmonks.com/blog/email-marketing/newsjacking-an-eternal-weapon-to-boost-up-your-email-open-rate/